Now Google is ruffling more feathers over its new unified data Terms of Use, which rolled outearly last year. Under its new terms Google and its affiliates -- which include the company's ad-network affiliates -- may put cookies on your computer to track your browsing history. Further data on your usage of different Google services (e.g. YouTube, Gmail, etc.) is combined into a single profile that Google uses to target ads at you -- a use that Google doesn't explicitly asking your permission for.

The Netherlands has become the latest country to cry foul over this approach. Dutch data protection director Jacob Kohnstamm says that Google's tactics are not only questionable -- they explicitly violate local privacy laws, "Google spins an invisible web of our personal data, without our consent. And that is forbidden by law."

Dutch regulators say Google's new terms of use violate the law by having no opt-out to monitoring. [Image Source: Google Images/Unknown]

In The Netherlands, user internet activity is protected under the Dutch Data Protection Act [Wet Bescherming Persoonsgegevens], with the Dutch Data Protection Authority [College Bescherming Persoonsgegevens] (Dutch DPA) tasked with enforcement of the law. In its press release the Dutch DPA writes:

Google does not adequately inform users about the combining of their personal data from all these different services. On top of that, Google does not offer users any (prior) options to consent to or reject the examined data processing activities. The consent, required by law, for the combining of personal data from different Google services cannot be obtained by accepting general (privacy) terms of service.

In, Europe Google has a more dominant search position than in the U.S. In the EU, Google has held as much as 86 percent of the search market; currently it has around an 80 percent market share, according to Reuters. This is much higher than in the U.S., where its market share is currently around 67 percent, according to market research firm Comscore.